Movies in movies

Here's what i meant in the previous post. A song from the superhit Dil Chahta Hai, where you see a couple imagining themselves onscreen (don't we all do that?), and going through the different Hindi-film styles (50's, 70's, 90's). Through going to the movies together, they realize they are in love. A landmark movie that according to many youth set a trend. A trend towards movies that were more about friendship than about all the love-parents-tradition crap of the 90s bollywood.

King Khan dethroned

One thing I love about Indian movies, is that they are often, at least partially, about Indian movies as well. Frequently you see people sitting in a cinema watching a movie, in the dialogues they refer to other movies, or the stories even revolve around someone trying to make it in film business. You watch (one of) the following movies and you know what i mean: Om Shanti Om (2007), Mili (1975), Rangeela (1995), Bombay Boys (1998).
I would say it shows that Indian cinema is a very selfaware cinema. India is a cinematic society, movies make up an integral part of the social cement. How we talk, how we walk, what we sing, what we drink. By making all this a theme in the films themselves, this is great fun to watch of course. Because now the films are about the stars, but also about the people watching, thinking and talking about those stars. Very much a cinema of and for the people. (Although some Marxist cynics claim this 'making cinema about cinema and the viewers' is the best way to make people addicted to cinema, and keep them buying.)
But recently this backfired. Yesterday we watched Billu Barber. It's about a small time barber, in a small time village. Then, his fate changes dramatically when the superhero Sahir Khan (played by Shah Rukh Khan) and his team come to the village for shooting a new SFX film in Matrix style. The rumour spreads that Billu used to be Sahir's friend in childhood, and suddenly everyone respects the poor barber. The storyline of the film is simple, and revolves around the question: 'Will Billu and Sahir meet again?'
The interesting parts of the film are about how the village is affected by the luxurious invasion of cinema. Business is going up, people become star crazy, and all try their best to get a glimpse of the hero or even a part in the movie. We see actual villagers playing actual villagers who want to play film villagers. We are supposed to believe the movie is about it's morals, that no matter if you're rich or poor, filmstar or barber, it's friendship that really matters.
But i couldn't help seeing in everything a glorification of the real life star, Shah Rukh Khan. He plays himself, under a slightly different name. People sing actual songs of his actual past movies.
He is shown loving his fans, but also critical of the people (politicians) underestimating his honesty and hard work. Even if he's not there, the movie revolves around him, by showing the effect he has on others. And in the end, the fate of the poor barber is finally changed for the good. Why? Of course, because the star takes care of that.
I couldn't help getting the idea that Shah Rukh Khan wanted a film about himself, showing the person behind the star. He wanted to show that Shah Rukh once was a little boy as well, just like everyone else. The film, produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri, is about Shah Rukh Khan about Shah Rukh Khan about Shah Rukh Khan.
But King Khan was someone else, NOT SR, but Irrfan in the role of Billu (whom many will know as the interviewing policeman in Slumdog Millionaire). Irrfan shows that a movie is much more interesting if an actor can actually act. And that it is high time stardom is not something that should be managed. It could, possibly, also be left to the opinion of the audiences, who I'm sure have a voice of their own. (Although the villagers in Billu Barber don't seem to be anything more than dumb, fame-following sheep.)

Hindu Surinams watching Bollywood in Holland

Just around the corner where I live there is a grocery store run by Hindustani people who came from Surinam to Holland in the 60s and 70s. One corner of this store is transformed to a Bollywood dvd-store. It offers a huge range of films, classics till the latest, and they are offered for the rediculous price of 10 euros for 4. (I wont try to figure out how this is possible, but the photocopied covers say enough.) For me, one of the few white Bollywood freaks, this is great. It saves me a lot of waiting for the download to be finished. But ofcourse, the main market are the ones that watch these films the most, the people from Surinam. Now, I have always wondered, why do people who have not so much of a bonding to India, love these movies so much? The current generation is born in The Netherlands and has hardly a bond with Surinam anymore, and not even close to one with India.
Last week I attended a lecture by Sanderien Verstappen, a Dutch woman who graduated with an anthropological study on the meaning of Bollywood for these Hindustani youth. She explained that the Indianness of these films is not interesting to them at all. The main reason for them watching is the portrayal of the family, which relates to them much more than the nuclear and distant families in Hollywood or an average Dutch soap. The films show children struggling with parental pressure, or family that is always around, which is an actual reality for them. The most beautiful quote was of a girl who had said: 'Why i watch Bollywood? To feel normal!'
A great example of how films can mean different things to different people, but also on how Bollywood appeals to many of these different people at the same time. Unity in diversity, as India likes to describe itself.

Mumbai My Life

The horrifying terrorist attacks in Mumbai are still going on. Reaching 48 hours now. Many speculations, many stories, many emotions. One of the issues will be how the city is collectively going to process this trauma. This made me think of a movie I saw recently, Mumbai Meri Jaan (Mumbai my life, 2008) by Nishikanth Kamath.
I would say this movie is an Indian version of Crash. It revolves around the lives of different people that come together because of the terrorist attack on the Mumbai train on 11 july 2006. Over 200 people lost their lives then. The movie is original and touching in the sense that it is not so much about the blast itself, but about a few people dealing with its impact. At the same time it is a movie about the way media deals with these happenings. A big newschannel wants to cover the horrors and at the same time get the most viewers.
The movie opens with a speech of Nehru, who adresses the public about the awakening of India. In the context of the images to come the speech gets a different meaning. Maybe 'the nation' is not able to provide security for all. And maybe it is more the people themselves that have to learn how to live together. No one is going to do that for them. Mumbai Meri Jaan shows how the people of this mega-city struggle, but that human contact is possible.
In the light of the terror currently happening, Mumbai Meri Jaan is an important movie and could help the people in talking about their experiences. I wish the city inspiration for finding connections between people, instead of further clashes and divisions.
By the way, the title refers to the classis song Bombay meri Jaan from the movie CID. It already said that living in a big city is difficult, with so many material things and danger around. Apparently it can not be sung and shown enough...

Paper Flowers

Guru Dutt (1925-1964) is seen as one of the main directors from the golden age of Hindi cinema, the 50's. He was someone with the gift to make movies that were commercial as well as artistic, to use those two container terms. Besides being a director, he loved to play the main roles in is own films as well, in a style that perhaps reminds us of
Perhaps the most famous movie was Pyaasa (The thirsty one, 1957).
Dutt was not the most happy filmmaker though. This is best illustrated with his movie Kagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers, 1959).
We see Dutt playing the highly respected film director Suresh who is looking for a leading actress in the upcoming production Devdas (a movie that has been made 9 times in India so far). His marriage is broken, his daughter lives in a hostel. He only lives for the movies. After finding the girl Shanti, the beautiful Waheeda Rehman was his real-life muse as well, they start shooting. But in the meanwhile the two lost souls fall in love with each other. This is the start of a long slide downwards. Because of his love for her, he can't shoot the movie how he wants, and because of the show that must go on, he can't commit his love to her. His other movie is a big flop; he sees a furious audience leaving the cinema halfway.He gets fired by the production house, he loses the court case over the courtesy of his daughter, and Shanti is asked to leave by a third person who tries to save the movie. With 'bollywood hope' we assume that things will be allright, but they don't. Suresh gets more lonely, and Shantis trials of getting back to him fail. In the end we get back to where the movie started, an old man wandering through an empty studio. We now know the old man is Suresh, who wanted to visit 'his world' once more. The next morning he is found dead, sitting in the director's chair.
Kagaz ke phool is a movie about loneliness. We see a movie director wanting to infuse his work with pure passion, the love of a woman. But when passion becomes obsession, it is not unifiable anymore with commercial cinema, where roses are fake. Nothing more than paper flowers.
The movie is also clearly a movie about Guru Dutt himself. His love for Waheeda Rehman, and his actual broken marriage are well-known.
The movie shows his fight between wanting to make the greatest movie ever, and an industry that only allows for a certain amount of passion. Dutt must have seen himself as a dreamer, for whom there is no place in a commercial world. It is because of these thematics that this movie has to be watched even today.
And then there is reality again. Kagaz ke phool was a big flop, and apparently Guru Dutt could not take this. It lead to an even bigger depression than he was already in. Three years later Dutt was found dead in his room, with next to him the remains of pills and alcohol. Few say it was an accident.
His black and white movies are beautifully lit; stark contrasts that create gloomy atmospheres. It is this lighting that might also have reflected his thinking. When asked about the failure of Kagaz Ke Phool and the succes of another he said: "What is there in life, friend? There are only two things - success and failure. There is nothing in between." (wikipedia.org/wiki/guru_dutt)
The following song illustrates everything above. We see the director in a push-and-pull scene with Waheeda Rehman. And to make things more intense, it is sung by Dutt's wife, Geeta Dutt. Can it be more intense?

Bolly-o-Bama

While the Indian film industry likes to claim that they are ready to go global; other sides of the planet mainly like to find bollywood an interesting cultural phenomenon to make things funnier than they already are. Spice it up Indian style. Here's one of them (again).

Chameli

Chameli is a movie directed by Sudhir Mishra, and was released in 2003. One of those movies that are considered to be 'off-beat bollywood', a little more on the artistic side. Whatever we call it, it is absolutely worth watching.
Prostitutes have often been portrayed in Hindi films as beautiful but dangerous seductresses of the hero. Vamps. They dance, drink and smoke, like the men do (especially the villains). They come when the hero doesn't know what to do anymore, and tries to forget his miseries in the bar. But ofcourse, most of the time the seduced hero gets back to his senses and hence to a normal woman.
Chameli (Kareena Kapoor) is also a beautiful, smoking and drinking seductress. But her seduction doens't touch Amar (Rahul Bose), the lost soul who lost his wife as well. Not untill they start sharing their lives with each other, and in the meanwhile help eachother get rid of corrupted bad guys. Then, there is another seduction. A transvestite wants Amar as well for his services. I held my breath, expecting another comedy scene where the poor man/woman gets exposed and made fun of. Which is usually the case. But this time the character is a person, with feelings, and a future of love with another person.
After these 'shocks' you get sucked into the lives of the two persons. Just two people in the dark, trying to get a little light with eachother. The end might be expected, but then again, unconventional as well. The tension that builds between the two characters culminates in the scene on Marine Drive, sitting on a wall, when the rain has finally stopped. But tears start flowing. Seperation is near. She learnt to love. He learns to cry. Is the light gonna take over the dark?
The movie is wonderfully slow and small. No big sets, big special effects, huge songs. It plays with conventional themes of bollywood movies, but in a less glamorous way. With that it is one of the typical new movies. It uses the cliche's, song, dance, wealth and corruption, but with a twist. A twist that might tell us that bollywood is ready for movies with less predictable narratives, and possibly less conventional morality. And it is also great to see Kareena Kapoor acting before she reduced her waistline to size 32. Here's one of the first scenes.